GOP senators to Liz Cheney: We like Mike Enzi

Not every senator is explicitly endorsing Enzi. A bloc of Senators in their first term — including Jeff Flake of Arizona, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Deb Fischer of Nebraska and Mike Lee of Utah — are all declining to specifically wade into the primary battle.

“That has to do with their previous races, where they didn’t get endorsed by anybody. So I understand that,” Enzi told POLITICO. “If you ask them questions about me, they will say very favorable things.”

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Sure enough, when pressed, all four lawmakers were quick to compliment Enzi, and some expressed unfamiliarity with Cheney, who graduated from a Northern Virginia high school but whose family has deep ties to Wyoming.

Lee said he “doesn’t know anything” about Cheney and praised Enzi for signing on to his effort to oppose spending bills that include funding for Obamacare, which Lee said “shows courage and leadership” given that some Republicans quit the effort after it was criticized publicly by others in the GOP.

“Sen. Enzi’s a great senator,” Fischer said. “I’ve never met Liz Cheney. I think she’d be a great senator, too, but as I’ve said before, Wyoming has two good senators.”

As for Enzi, he doesn’t throw rhetorical bombs at his political opponents or preen for media coverage and said in an interview that his style is to work behind the scenes and buttonhole senators one-on-one, a strategy he learned as a shoe salesman many careers ago. Atop the HELP committee, he successfully led efforts to enact new laws on pension reform and mine safety, many going straight to the Oval Office for President George W. Bush’s signature, located just a few paces from Vice President Dick Cheney’s office.

“I’m proud of every one of those,” Enzi said.

Enzi has spent dozens of years in politics, rising from shoe salesman to mayor of Gillette, Wyo., to both chambers of the state Legislature to the U.S. Senate in 1997. He said his favorite accomplishment is getting a law passed as a freshman over the objections of the coal industry that helped protect holders of federal leases for natural gas royalties found in coal beds, which he pointed to as evidence of the close attention he pays to Wyomingites — not Washington insiders.

“It was kind of fun when the Supreme Court asked the questions in terms of the Enzi bill, which of course everyone assured me as a freshman I’d never get done,” he said.

Enzi is often seen walking through the tunnel from his Capitol office to the Senate floor engrossed in his Kindle or a packet of legislative notes. His wife bakes hundreds of cookies a year for Senate staff that keeps the upper chamber running every day and whips up root beer floats for the Senate pages.

Cheney insists fresh faces are needed in the Senate, though during an interview, she declined to specifically criticize Enzi or other Senate Republicans backing him.

But it was no coincidence that she said the federal government’s role has worsened and become more intrusive over the past 18 years — precisely how long Enzi will have served in the Senate on primary day next August.

“Things are not getting better; they are getting worse. It’s time to elect a new generation who will step up to the plate and fight on behalf of conservative values,” she said.

Enzi has pitched a few ideas that may end up in attack ads. He’s long been a strong supporter of allowing states to collect sales taxes from out-of-state Internet retailers, a bill passed by the Senate this year that divided Republicans neatly in half. Enzi’s support for that bill originated during his time as mayor of Gillette — where he saw how much municipalities rely on sales tax revenue for roads, sidewalks and sewers. He’s also backed indexing the long-stagnant federal gas tax to inflation, which is out-of-step with national conservative orthodoxy but in step with conservative Wyoming, which just raised its state gas tax by 10 cents per gallon.

But casting Enzi as a moderate is a tough task, given his strong lifetime score with the Club for Growth and above-average ranking with Heritage Action. Shelby deems him “ultra conservative.” Flake and Johnson — with pristine Club for Growth scores — also rate Enzi a conservative.

Not all of Washington is turning its back on Cheney’s insurgent candidacy. The Club for Growth is “watching the race,” a spokesman said. The DeMint-founded Senate Conservatives Fund took a veiled shot at Enzi despite a current stance of neutrality.

“We don’t endorse incumbents as a rule and we certainly wouldn’t endorse one who voted to raise taxes and increase the debt limit,” said Executive Director Matt Hoskins in an email. “We’re interested to get to know Liz Cheney better and to learn more about her vision.”